Personal for Anthony J Sargeant Tony

Following the Manchester bombing the protestations from decent British Muslims that this is nothing to do with Islam just will not do

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We keep seeing decent law abiding British Muslims speaking on television news after the murder of 22 young people in Manchester claiming that “Islam is a religion of peace”. For them it may be so – they are decent good people. But it just will not do.

The reality is quite different for millions of Muslims in many countries around the world. That is why murderous atrocities, of which Manchester is but one example, have been committed by Muslims who believe they are carrying out the will of God, and that they will be rewarded in heaven.

There are many places in world where Muslims approve, encourage or condone the murder of apostates, and blasphemers. In many Muslim majority countries this is written into the law. For millions of Muslims the punishment for adultery is for women to be buried up to their necks and stoned to death. Homosexuals are killed. Women are subjugated – misogyny is hardly adequate to describe the place of women in many Muslim societies: In which societies, for example, an almost impossible burden of proof falls on the woman in cases of rape and failure to prove her case means she is guilty of adultery and the consequence is death. Beheadings, amputation of limbs, and floggings are considered just punishments. Fatwas – death warrants – are issued by Islamic leaders against public figures in distant lands. Forced Marriages of young girls and so-called honour killings take place, not just in Muslim majority countries but here in the self-isolating Muslim communities in Europe. And so the distressing litany could go on.

The point is that for many millions of Muslims this is part and parcel of their religion. They would not recognise or accept the view of those decent Muslims interviewed on British Television News following the mass murder of children in Manchester. Those interviewees with their statements that “Islam is a religion of peace” are understandably attempting to counteract any backlash against the British Muslim community most of whom are good and decent people.

But it simply will not do.

The Twin Towers, the London Bus and Tube attacks, Paris, Nice, Germany, US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, Suicide bombers around the world – the litany goes on and on. Murderous atrocities committed against civilian populations by Muslims believing that Allah is great and that they will be rewarded in heaven.

Of course they are deluded, not least in a belief in a mythological God and a life hereafter but that does not help the victims of their religiously inspired murders. Murders committed in the name of Islam. To keep trotting out the line that “Islam is a religion of peace” simply will not do. For every peace-loving law abiding Muslim there are many others around the world, but also in our midst, who take a completely different view, despising and seeking to kill Kafirs (non-Muslims). Moreover, those that have come to the West, ostensibly as refugees and asylum seekers, are capable of infecting other Muslims born here with their religious justification of murder. Most especially this becomes the case where isolated and self-isolating communities are created within the host society. Communities that seek to impose Sharia law and create Sharia Courts independent of the host country’s judicial system. Where the Iman is considered the supreme authority, interpreter and moral arbiter by the Islamic men attending the mosque: Supreme above the established values and moral code of the host society. Where schooling in urban areas becomes segregated on religious grounds with what are essentially Islamic academies operating and funded within the State System.

Enoch Powell warned of the dangers of creating isolated and self-isolating communities within the host society in 1968. He was derided, ignored, and pronounced anathema by the liberal political system: But in essence his analysis and predictions have sadly proven to be accurate.

I do not know what the solution is for my good Muslim friends living in the UK nor for British Society as a whole. It may already be too late. But there will be no possibility of any solution if the denial continues and the issues are not addressed.

To keep repeating the mantra “Islam is a religion of peace” simply will not do.